Footprints of Jurian Nakaura@No.1
There was a Christian who had trusted and looked to Jesus Christ with all his heart in the era of significant change throughout the world as well as in Japan. He preached Christ to many people, and protected many Christians to the limits of his strength in the severe persecution.
Jingo Ozasa (later called, Jurian Nakaura) was born in 1567 at Nakaura
in the Hizen Province (present Saikai-city in Nagasaki prefecture).
Columbus discovered the New World (1492), Vasco da Gama discovered Indian
fairway (1498), and Magellan and members of his party succeeded at a round-the-world
voyage for the first time (1522). This was only 50 years after Magellanfs
round-the-world voyage verified that the Earth was round for the first
time. After discovering this Indian fairway, Portugal expanded trade in
Asia based at Goa in India, Malacca, and Macao in China. In times such
as these, a Portuguese ship drifted ashore onto Tanega-island in Japan
for the first time (arrival of guns) in 1543, then Japanese met Europeans
for the first time. And finally Francis Xavier, a Jesuit missionary placed
his foot upon the soil of Kagoshima, and began to tell Jesus Christ to
Japanese.
Fourteen years later, in 1563, Sumitada Omura, a feudal lord of Omura,
Hizen Province at the time (present Omura city, Nagasaki) became the first
Christian feudal lord. Jingo was born as the heir of Jingoro Ozasa, a
feudal lord of@Nakaura which was Omura's territory, who was one of the
retainers serving under the lord Omura.
This Japanese man was Jurian Nakaura, who met Jesus Christ. He was one
of the members of the first Japanese Embassy to Europe which was sent by
three Christian feudal lords; Omura, Arima, and Otomo. They sailed from
Nagasaki and made a tour of various European countries including Portugal,
Spain, and Italy and met the Pope. He had kept preaching the gospel for
his life as an faithful ambassador of Christ until his death. I will follow
his footsteps from now on.
(The Kyoto Glory Church Translation Committee is
responsible for the wording of this article.)